Another World
by Rioghna
Summary: Sequel to "Sometimes He Dreams" Best to read that first. Thanks to EmilieBrown for the lovely artwork.
1. Awake

Another World

Rumplestiltskin was confused and not a little disoriented but that was something to deal with later. Right now, even though it was hard to sort out exactly where 'here' was, the first thing they needed to do was get out of this room and make plans.

"Rum...Richard?" Belle stopped, confused as she threw herself at the oddly dressed version of her True Love, fumbling for his cursed name in the face of all these strangers. Two armed men moved to stop her but they weren't fast enough and he caught her, reminding himself no matter how much it hurt that he couldn't do what he wanted, which was crush her into his arms and growl at anyone threatening her.

"I think not, Dearie," he said, trying to remember how Dr. Rush talked from the confusing images in his head, and hoping she understood. "Later," he whispered quietly in her ear as he moved her carefully to arms length before allowing (reluctantly, oh, so very reluctantly) the armed men to move her onto her own two feet and away from him. They were looking at him confused, and he cursed. Apparently he was acting out of character, but that could be sorted, after he found a way to protect Belle. It felt like he was letting her down again, but she met his eyes and nodded once.

"Oh, of course, you couldn't be. I..." she looked flustered. "I thought you were someone else."

"Clearly. Dr. Nicholas Rush," he introduced himself, barely resisting the familiar (to her) flourish. The words felt foreign on his tongue and his body was stiff and clumsy, like an ill fitted suit. After living for so long with a leg twisted and poorly healed, two working legs made balance an awkward task. But before she could answer, two more people entered the room. One, who his memory identified as TJ and the medic, went straight for Belle and it took an effort not to get between them. Besides, she meant no harm. The other person, however...

"So what is going on here?" Young shouted. "Rush, explain." Rumplestiltskin shivered in his unfamiliar skin and resisted the impulse to reach for his magic and turn the man into...well, something. But for right now that wasn't an option, or one that he was willing to rely on anyway. Right now, he needed to get Belle alone and figure out exactly what happened. At least she had her memories, he wasn't sure he could go through that nightmare again.

"That's what I am trying to find out," he snapped back at the larger man. Something about him reminded him of every King, General and Military commander he had ever known and despised in his frighteningly long life. Well, except Charming, and he had his moments too. "I need to question B...this woman, and..."

"First she is going to the infirmary," TJ informed him. "We need to know where she came from and how she got to the planet, not to mention whether or not she is carrying any foreign pathogens."

"I'll go with you," he said, earning him a strange look from the rest of the crew. "What? At the very least, I look familiar to her, perhaps she would feel more comfortable with me present." He looked at one of the men, younger than the rest, with the look that spoke of something other than the military. Eli, his memory supplied the name, smarter than the rest for the most part, annoying but capable. "You, Eli, get down to... the console room and start analyzing the data. I'll handle this," he barked the order. For some reason that seemed to relax people, as if he at least sounded like the Dr. Rush they were familiar with. Good. Right now they needed time and time meant acting the way they expected him to. Belle had said nothing more, merely standing looking back and forth between the people around her, making notes and observations for later use, just as he was. That was his girl.

"Rush, I need answers, not you gallivanting off with some alien..." He turned on the man. A quick troll through his memories told him Rush didn't like him, and trusted him somewhat less after an incident that he needed to explore more throughly later. Most certainly he was just waiting for his chance.

"And I have several hundred things which need my immediate attention as well, including but not limited to finding out more about the world you just gated back from, analyzing the data, making sure that nothing life threatening falls apart and finding out what B... that girl was doing out here. Then, when I've finished all of that, I'd like just a few moments to tend to some other personal matters, if you don't mind too terribly?" He stopped. His voice had been going up dramatically and he'd advanced on the larger man, slowly driving him back a step with nothing but the force of his anger. Now he just wanted rid of the commander so he could tend to important things, like Belle. Like getting Belle back to his quarters and reminding her and himself exactly how much he loved her. And a shave, he needed a shave. While his wife had never seemed to mind when he had scales, she was not a fan of stubble, nor to be honest was he.

Looking down for the first time he took in his appearance with a twisted smirk of disgust. The body was familiar, the usual bits minus a few scars and his twisted leg, now straight. He was no more lovely than he ever had been, but as long as Belle would still have him, that mattered not at all. But the clothes, what was he wearing? He looked and felt like he'd slept in them, possibly had been sleeping in them for some time, and that would never do. He'd not done that in, well suffice it to say long before the crew of this ship had been born, possibly longer than their entire lives put together. Jeans? He had never worn blue jeans in his life, nor any of these other...things. The waistcoat was nice, familiar, if not particularly attractive, but the rest, this would never do.

"You...you do that, just..." Young said. The man seemed disturbed and Rumplestiltskin cackled, internally. Men like Young were unaccustomed to being intimidated, certainly not by a man who he perceived as smaller and therefor weaker than him. That it was also not his usual reaction to Nicholas Rush was confusing him even more.

"Good, I'm glad we're in agreement then," he growled with a twist of lips that could only be considered friendly to those who knew nothing about human expression. He waved to TJ to accompany them and offered a hand to Belle, who reached to take it, as always, but for TJ, who warned them apart much to his annoyance. Greer followed, apparently guarding Belle, though what he thought the tiny woman beside him would do, he didn't know. Not that she was harmless, he had taught her a few things over time, as had Emma when they got time after her little set to with Hook. Actually she had not done badly on her own, but she had always been a resourceful one.


	2. Debrief

The walk to the infirmary took only a few moments, but it seemed longer. Belle was near him, trying not to look at him. Rumplestiltskin was trying, for his part to figure out how to help her through the debrief that would follow. He at least had some knowledge though it was complicated. He could feel a headache starting, and part of his memory told him that it was lack of sleep, and lack of food, in addition to the pressure of having the memories of two separate people (three if you counted his cursed memories) occupying one, unfortunately at this moment, very human body. He wondered briefly if it could hold together until he could find a way to get the two of them out of here, and him back into his own body.

"Ok, lets get this started," the medic said as she guided her over to one of the exam beds. "I'm TJ, by the way. What's your name?" she asked in her most calming professional manner.

"I'm Belle, Belle...Gold," she said a little uncertainly. Oh, it was her name, at least the one that existed on her important papers in this world, like her marriage license. But hearing her say it sent a rush through him as it always did. "Where am I?"

"You are aboard our ship, it's called 'Destiny'," Rumplestiltskin answered her.

"How many more are there down on the planet?" TJ asked, as she started the physical, questions to keep her calm and focused.

"How many more what?" Belle asked.

"People, aliens, whatever you are?" Greer supplied with a grunt. The man was no longer pointing a gun at Belle, but Rumplestiltskin wasn't any more comfortable with him near her.

"None, not that I know of. Only me, and I'm not an alien, at least, I don't think I am. But that depends on where you all come from I suppose."

"Where are the others? Surely you can't be the only person, did something happen, plague, natural disaster?" TJ asked, looking at her in surprise.

"I don't know." Before she could say more, there was a beep and the computer screen started to move, scrolling through a list of statistics.

"Ok, this is weird, even for here," TJ said. "She's human, and I don't mean like some of the aliens we have seen that are from human stock. I mean..."

"Well, of course I'm human," Belle said, irritated. "I'm from Maine." Greer and TJ looked at her in shock, which Rumplestiltskin tried to mimic. Relaxing and letting the body's natural movement patterns take over wasn't easy.

"I don't know, you don't sound like anyone I've ever met from Maine," Greer said dubiously, but then it was his job to be suspicious, so it was almost easy to resist the desire to rip his tongue out for insulting his wife, almost. "And how'd you get down there."

"Which question should I answer first?" she asked, not one to be intimidated. "I don't know how I got where you found me, I don't even know where 'here' is. I was with my husband, in the forest near our house...and then there was a flash and..." She paused, and covered her face. He knew what she was going through, the memories of what had happened right before...well right before they ended up here. "Do you know where he is? Where is my husband?" she asked, as if she was about to break down. It took everything, even knowing that she was acting exactly as they expected her and it wasn't real, not to throw himself at her, and hold her.

Soon, he reminded himself. He wasn't exactly sure how he would accomplish it, but he would, he promised.

"That I can't tell you, I'm sorry," TJ said.

"So, about Maine," Greer prompted. The man was a paranoid, but as much as Rumplestiltskin wanted to hit him, this was good, allowing Belle to work her story out before the debriefing, which was going to be much more difficult. He knew that Young was going to be there, and it was going to take a lot of his strength just to prevent himself from strangling the man.

"Storybrooke, it's in the upper part of the state, an hour or so from Portland," she said not completely sure what to say. "I sometimes forget...I'm originally from Sydney, that's in Australia," she said helpfully as if Greer was a particularly dimwitted child. "But we moved when I was a small child. I'm so accustomed to it, Storybrooke is a small town, the 'everyone knows everyone' sort. No one has actually mentioned my accent in so long, I...I forgot."

He tried for a smile, hoping it looked right. Hard to tell when your body isn't your own, even if...well, it was awfully close, perhaps he could keep it. It was a little lighter, but had two working legs, and what did Rush have to go back to that could compare to Belle? But those were thoughts for later.

"Let's get some of the more pertinent questions out of the way, if you don't mind?" TJ said turning to glare at the two men. "Age?"

"Thirty one," Belle responded. At least this part was easy enough. They had been through all of that filling out their 'official' papers after Storybrooke stopped being cut off from the world. For a brief moment, Rumplestiltskin allowed his thoughts to drift back and worry about what was going on there. Bae would be all right, he was an adult, and he had Emma, they would take care of Henry. Regina could probably handle at least some of the magical mishaps. He tried to tell himself that he was unconcerned, but he failed at that regularly.

"Okay, time for you two to leave the room,"TJ said briskly. While he had been distracted, she had apparently finished taking her medical history. "I am going to get you some clean clothes and let you get washed up before we take you down for debriefing."

"I can't leave you with an unknown alien," Greer said just as Rumplestiltskin was starting to say something. Certainly he wasn't going to leave the man to gawk while his wife changed!

"Does she look like a threat?" TJ said with a certain amount of frustration.

"Do they ever?"

"Dr...Rush?" Belle said, looking to him for reassurance. At least she remembered the right name. He was thinking frantically, not wanting to leave, not even willing to consider allowing Greer to stay. TJ and Greer both looked from him to her and they were going to have to figure something out before this started looking really suspicious.

"Perhaps if we stay on this side of the screen?" He suggested. "Surely you can managed to get around or through it fast enough to subdue this little slip of a girl?" Greer grimaced at his mocking tone, but nodded reluctantly. TJ moved the screen in place, though they could hear every word from the other side. He could picture exactly what was happening. He knew Belle's body as well as he knew his own, probably better than he knew this one.

TJ came out from behind the screen, got some spare fatigues from a cupboard and returned. "These might be a little too big, but it'll have to do for now," she told her. He knew that his little love was going to swim in the clothes, but there was nothing for it. Instead he concentrated on watching the man next to him and trying not to worry about Belle. "Oh, what is that?" TJ continued to converse with the woman on the other side of the screen. "It's lovely."

"My locket?" he heard Belle say. For a moment he wondered if he should interrupt, stop this. He knew exactly what was in the locket, he should, he'd put it together. On the other hand, it would make things somewhat clearer, at least to them. It was a simple explanation that would satisfy their needs for such things. "It's got a picture from my wedding," she said softly, and he tried to listen for the sound of the catch. He didn't need any help to know exactly when it was open.

"OH MY GOD," TJ exclaimed, and Greer started to move as Rush's hand came down on his arm to stop him. He didn't care how weird it looked, that man was not getting anywhere near his wife, certainly not in a state of undress. "You guys have got to see this."

"What is it?" Greer said urgently, pulling away from Rush with a look of disgust.

"Mrs. Gold...Belle, can I..."she asked.

"You will bring it straight back?" Belle said. Clearly she had thought along the same lines as he had, of course that wasn't uncommon.

TJ agreed and then made her way around the screen, locket in hand and opened. She shoved it at Rush and Greer. "Look at that," she said.

"Wow," Greer said with his usual eloquence. Rumplestiltskin looked at it, pulling Rush's glasses out of his pocket though he didn't actually need them, and studied the picture.

"Hmmm, suppose there is some resemblance."

"Resemblance? He could be your brother, obviously got all the style sense," Greer said with a laugh.

"Could be related, for all I know. I've not really had contact with my mum's family, we weren't close." That jibbed enough with his memories from Rush, without saying more about his past, which apparently he wasn't in the habit of doing. The good doctor was a private person, which certainly served his purposes.

"That's why she thought she knew you," TJ said, realisation dawning.

"Probably," he said, as if it was of no importance to him, though seeing the two of them, on that day, they had been so very happy. His Belle looked beautiful in her blue gown, having forgone the traditions of this world to wear white for a weddings and gone back to their own. He couldn't help but smile.

"It was," Belle said as she emerged from behind the screen. As he predicted, she was swimming in the fatigues. Even with the adjustment points, their small meant one size fit someone else, but as all they had was a random crate that had somehow come through the gate during the madness was the evacuation, having something was a bit of a miracle. "You sound like him as well," she said as she reached for the locket and he returned it to her, closing his hand briefly over hers in reassurance. She put it back around her neck with a smile.

"Scot?" he asked.

"Yes, but like me, more or less, he left a long time ago. Right now I just want to know he's all right."

"I'm afraid that might be difficult, but we will see what we can do. Contact with Earth isn't particularly easy. I assume she is healthy?" The question was directed toward the medic.

"She's a little dehydrated, a little undernourished, nothing life threatening. She needs food and water, and I'm going to give her a vitamin shot. Beyond that she's ready to go."

"Then get on with it. The sooner we get this meeting over, the sooner we can all get back to work," he growled, in what was apparently a familiar fashion. At least they reacted as if it was. Keeping track was making his headache worse, but there was nothing he could do for it. He was afraid to try to reach out and see if magic would work here, not when he didn't know what the visible signs would be. Instead, he stood by feigning impatience while the medic gave Belle a shot, gave her orders to drink as much as she could, and handed her a ration bar to eat until they were finished and could take her to the mess hall. Privately, he thought considering what the other passenger in his head was telling him about the food, she was better putting it off as long as possible. It was most certainly likely to compare and not favourably with the hospital where she had been a prisoner during the curse. The last thing his lady love needed right now was anything that brought back her nightmares.

Belle was in turmoil as they walked down another metal corridor, at least she thought it was another one. It could have been the same one for all she knew. The large man with the gun and the threatening manner was still with her, though the medic, TJ had stayed behind saying she was not needed. Rumplestiltskin was still with her, though. At least she thought it was him. She couldn't forget the 'dearie' when they had met in the other room, where they had come up from the planet through some sort of magic doorway, not dissimilar to a mirror, maybe similar to the way Rumplestiltskin always talked about the danger of mirrors. She just never thought to find it in the world without magic. She was fairly certain that was where she was at least. But how had she ended up here, how had Rumplestiltskin ended up here, and why did everyone think he was someone else?

And who was Dr. Nicholas Rush? Certainly everyone recognised him under that name. So either he was somehow sharing the body of someone who looked and sounded like her love, a man who had been on this ship before they had ever gotten here, or somehow like with the curse, history around them rewrote itself to admit him. Though if it was the second, how was he walking? The magic to permanently heal his leg had thus far proved more than he could manage and he rarely wasted energy on it, having lived with it as it was for so long.

Worrying about all that would have to wait though. They were walking towards a room for what they had said was a debriefing, which she assumed meant a lot of questions. So far she had stuck to her cursed persona story. Apparently they were in the same world, these people were humans, from Earth, which meant sticking to things that they could potentially check up on. At least that would mean that perhaps it would be possible to get a message back to Storybrooke, let them know that they were...all right? At least she hoped they were. If Rumplestiltskin was somehow sharing a body with this Nicholas Rush person, she hoped that there was a way to get them separated. Also she hoped that if that was the case his real body was still somewhere, even if that meant it was back home under the care of Dr. Frankenstein.

They paused at a metal door, and Rumplestiltskin did something she didn't quite see to open it. Inside was the big man she had met earlier, the one that yelled a lot. She had taken a rather instant dislike to the man. He reminded her a little bit of various of advisors of her fathers and her former fiancé, who she had left behind for the safety of her people, never looking back. There were a couple other people in there, one she hadn't met before and two who had been with the party that found her, but she barely noticed them as Rumplestiltskin waved her into a chair. Rush, she needed to remember to call him Rush, well at least it was close enough for a misstep to be easily corrected. She smiled at him and sat down.

The debriefing started normally enough, or so it felt to Rush in the back of his mind. General reports on what had been found on the planet, what supplies they had acquired. Mostly he tuned it out. The headache had gotten worse, and he really wanted to get through this so he could be alone with Belle. He hadn't figured exactly how he was going to accomplish that, though he thought he would volunteer to find her quarters. There were plenty of empty rooms near his own, his alter ego told him, preferring to live in a less traveled corridor. He was actually wondering a little bit about the helpful suggestion from the other person in his head, but it wasn't something he could think about right now.

"Now, Miss...Gold," Young said, addressing Belle directly for the first time.

"Mrs. Gold," she corrected him. "But most people just call me Belle."

"Very well, Belle, thirty one year old female, from a small town in Maine. Storybrooke, never heard of it," he said.

"Not surprising, it's a very small town," she replied politely.

"Near to Bangor?" he asked.

"Near enough, I suppose. I never go that far inland, really," she said. His eyes were on the screen in front of him.

"Well, physically you are in good shape, according to TJ, a little dehydration, a little malnutrition. Planet was warm enough, I suppose, no signs of exposure."

"I had a warm coat, it must have been left behind when they found me," she said. "It's still winter at home, or I think...it was?"

"How long were you there?" Rush asked. Young looked at him as if trying to figure out what was going on with him. Not that he had ever had an idea about that.

"I'm not sure, maybe a week? I was a little disoriented at first. I might still be for all I know. I keep hoping I will wake up and this will all be a dream. At first I thought I had fallen or something. We were walking in the forest, behind our house. We like to walk, well, I like to walk, and my husband indulges me because I worry about his health." she told them, but her eyes lingered on his a moment longer.

"What do you remember?" he asked, as gentle as anyone could remember Rush ever being.

"We'll get to that. I'm asking the questions for now, Dr. Rush," Young said sharply, interrupting them to assert his authority

"By all means, continue," Rush said sarcastically. "But get to the point, we all have work to do."

"Ok, so you are from a small town in Maine. You know we can check on that, right?"

"Please do. When you do that, can you find out about my husband? I was with him when... when it happened," she said, her voice choking with pain. Rush/Rumplestiltskin reached into his pocket for an handkerchief only to realise that neither of them had one. Someone, the other woman in the room, Chloe, his memory filled him in, handed her a tissue, much to his disgust. They were nasty things, not like a proper handkerchief, and he took a second to berate his other self for being unprepared.

"Ok, so TJ also notes that you have a picture of your...husband?" he asked. Belle was more reluctant this time to take off the locket. She didn't trust the man either. "Interesting," he said as he looked from the picture to Rush sitting next to her.

"Yes, yes, we've done that already," Rush said snappishly. "For the record, no I don't know if he is a relative of mine, could be. He is certainly not me, as you well know since I have been here since..." he paused. He'd started to say before June, which was when he and Belle had been married. "When was that picture taken?" he covered quickly. Good thing that he and Rush were both used to thinking on their feet.

"June, last year. June 27th," she supplied.

"Well, since we all know where I was back then..." he said with a twisted smile that had nothing to do with humour. There was something in the back of his shared mind, something nasty that had to do with Young and he knew that mentioning would cause the man to back down, though he wasn't sure what it was yet.

"Yes, well, we've got that out of the way," Young said, avoiding the topic quickly and handing the locket back to Belle, failing to notice Rush helping fasten it back around her neck. "What do you do in Maine?" They all knew he wasn't just being pleasant, he was looking for all the information, things he could send back to Earth to try to trip her up when they checked on her background. Fortunately Rumplestiltskin knew his lady, and she would handle this easily.

"I'm the town librarian," she told him. "Also, I help in my husband's shop occasionally," she responded easily. "Oh, and my father's on certain holidays. He's the town florist."

"Ok, nice, friendly little town then, married to Mr. Gold, who does what exactly?"

"My husband runs a pawn and antiques shop on Main Street, actually the only one in town. He also owns some real estate, everyone knows him," she told him, giving him just enough information. Regardless of the situation she had to play it until they could figure out how to get out of it. "Please is all this necessary? Anyone in Storybrooke can tell you the same."

"That is the point. You could be making all this up," the Colonel said, looking at her. He was suspicious by nature, though he didn't fail to notice how beautiful she was, of that Rumplestiltksin was sure. That and something told him he wasn't above sleeping with women under his command. If he made a move on Belle though, he would find himself dead, possibly quite slowly.

"But I'm not," she told him calmly. "Like I said, it's a small town. My father's shop is Game of Thorns, I have one of those little key tags...well, I did, I suppose its wherever my keys are. His name is Moe French. My husband is Richard Gold."

"The man in the picture, yes," Young said. "So this Mr. Gold, your husband, he's older than you, isn't he? Looks like he could be old enough to be your father, actually. Assuming he's about the same age as Dr. Rush there. A rich man I suppose, owning the only antiques store in town. Cradle robber, is he? Or do you just..." Before he could finish the sentence, before he could actually do anything at all, she was up and her small hand was colliding with his cheek. The resounding slap that echoed around the room and knocked his head around. Greer had moved into a defensive position about a moment before she connected, but having established that she was no actual threat, he had shifted back and waited for the fall out.

"You may be in charge here," she said, standing up to all of her diminutive height but with the dignity of the Lady she was. "I may owe you some debt for rescuing me from...wherever I was. But that gives you absolutely no right to make assumptions about me or my husband, especially as it has nothing to do with how I got here or what happens now. I'll thank you to keep your comments professional, or at least your prurient comments to yourself." Young was still looking at her in shock, where as Rush wasn't trying to hide his smirk, an expression familiar to both of the men in that body. Camille looked a little surprised (and not a little impressed though she tried to hid it,) while Scott was pretending to look anywhere else, and Greer just pretended that everything was normal.

"I'm sorry, Belle...er... Mrs. Gold," Colonel Young said, realising that perhaps he had best back off from the fascinating little firebrand. Beautiful as well, he thought privately. He wondered how someone who looked like Rush, skinny, short and old, managed a beautiful woman like that, but letting that curiosity get the best of him was what led to him getting his face slapped so perhaps backing off was in order. He had deserved it though, he admitted. "So, town librarian, married, daughter of the florist, any particular people we can ask about you?"

"Anyone, like I said, its a small town. I suppose Ruby Lucas, she's one of my closest friends, or Emma...Emma Swan, she's the sheriff and she will know how to get you in touch with anyone you need to talk to, or Bae...Neal, he's my husband's son, you should talk to him, he should know what's happened to his father," Belle said, anxious to get this all over. She was tired, bone tired. She didn't even begin realise how tired until the adrenaline from her attack on Young began to ebb.

"Very well, as soon as we are out of FTL," he said to the room in general though she had no idea what he was talking about. "Someone will have to use the stones. I suppose you want to be the one to do it, Rush?" There was an unpleasant tone in his voice.

"Not at all," Rumplestiltskin replied. He wasn't exactly sure what the man was talking about but the images in his head told him that it had something to do with trading or sharing consciousness, and regardless of how it worked, that was the last thing he needed to be doing right now. He wasn't even sure how it would work in his current conditions, would one, the other or both end up in the mind of a third person? The person on the other end was likely to have a stroke from the pressure. He was going to be lucky if he could prevent that from happening to him without any help. Not to mention having no idea what the person involved would remember, if there would be bleed over. It could make things even more complicated. He had to find a way to send a message back to Emma, Regina, someone in town, but right now that was going to have to wait. "I have more than enough work to do as it is. I certainly haven't the time to deal with a security check on a girl that somehow managed to appear on the other side of the galaxy without access to a gate. How she got here, that is more my line. Paranoia is yours," he said rising abruptly. "I think we are done here." He stood and offered a hand to Belle. Was it out of character? Probably, but right at that moment he didn't care.

"Rush, you can't just..." Young snarled but he had already opened the door and was ushering her into the hall. Greer followed along after a moment, catching up with them in the corridor and falling into step behind them. Rush looked at him, but Greer just shrugged and continued to follow them. Clearly getting rid of the body guard was the first order of business.

"I'm taking her to the mess for food, is there a particular reason you need to follow us?"

"The Colonel said make sure she was shown to quarters and not running around the ship," he said concisely.

"Does she look like she is running anywhere?" He growled. "I'm going to take her for some of that revolting stuff they pretend is food and get her a room. I can lock the door if it will make him feel better, and since I am the only one who can do it, I'd say you are unnecessary."

Greer looked like he was thinking it over. "Need to eat anyway," he said with a shrug. Inside his borrowed skin, Rumplestilskin growled. Rush noted that the man would do just exactly what was required, but no more, so he subsided a little. After all, it was only a little longer.


End file.
